Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right–
The leaves upon her falling light–
Through the noises of the night
She floated down to Camelot:
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott. -The Lady of Shalott, Lord Alfred Tennyson

This song is not the happiest. To be honest, it kind of depresses me. But it is lovely, and I do love The Band Perry (although…the boys’ hair. I can’t even…luckily that doesn’t affect the sound or talent.) I heard it again on the radio the other day and was struck by something. For the first time I realized Anne Shirley, as in Anne of Green Gables, totally could have written this song. It’s the tragic romanticism that she loved in song form. Which actually made me love the song a little more.

If I die young, bury me in satin/Lay me down on a bed of roses/Sink me in the river at dawn/Send me away with the words of a love song- If I Die Young

It reminds me of the scene where Anne, Ruby, Diana and Jane reenacting the funeral of Elaine from the poem “Lady of Shalott”. And clearly, I was not the only one that thought of that, because the video concept is an adaptation of that scene. Kimberly even holds a book of Tennyson’s poems.

I don’t know if The Band Perry set out for it to be this, but now that I believe that the song is an homage to Anne, I love it a little bit more.